Candide: chapters 25 to 30 - Conclusion

Continuing on the topic of my last blog entry, I believe Martin is the cause of Candide's negativism. Martin is always talking about the bad things that happen to all humans in a pesimistic way; moreover, he believes humans are born to suffer. In the very last chapter we learn many things and conclusions, within these, we can see Martin can influence the life of many people. "Martin's conclusion was that man was born to suffer from the restlessness of anxiety or from the lethargy of boredom. Candide did not agree, but he admitted nothing." This is why I believe that in the previous chapters Candide negativism was caused or arranged by Martin.

However, in the last six chapters we can see another shift in Candide's personality. As I stated before, this novel is based completely on Candide, and because of this all the passing characters influence him and make him change personalities many times. At the beginning of the book many bad things happened to him, but he always thought everything was for the best because that was what Pangloss had taught him. Around the middle of the book, when Pangloss was gone, Candide began to think of all the bad things that happened to him, and became a pesimist. At the very end, when Pangloss re-appears, he is optimistic once again. "I have been thinking it over again, my dear Martin, and find that Pangloss was quite right; all is for the best." Because of this sequence and change of personality, and because of Pangloss' and Martin's influence on Candide, I have to say that Pangloss represents optimism, and Martin represents negativism.

In the very end, we can continue seeing Candide's optimism. He is always thinking about finding Pangloss again and he does, and when he finds Cunegonde, even though she is very ugly, he marries her thinking that it's for the best. In the end, all the characters are very unfortunate but Candide keeps pushing his optimism, which we can see perfectly in the very last sentence of the book. All the characters are arguing about their miserable conditions, but Candide insists everything will get better in a famous quote: " 'That's true enough,' said Candide; 'but we must go and work in the garden.' " Some people claim the garden is the Garden of Eden, where everything is perfect, but I simply believe this represents a place where people have to work to earn their lives and survive. This is Candide's optimism, he must work to earn better conditions.